The Mason-Wasps

A wasp-like garb of black and yellow; a slender, graceful figure; wings that are not spread flat when resting, but are folded lengthwise in two; the abdomen a sort of chemist’s...

The Eumenes’ suspension-cord and ascending-sheath are rendered necessary by the large number and the incomplete paralysis of the caterpillars provided for the larva; the object...

Of the several insects that elect to make their home in our houses, certainly the most interesting, for the beauty of its shape, the singularity of its manners and the structure...

Judging only by instincts and habits, a characteristic superior to all others, we must rank not far below the builder whose nest we have been considering certain other Wasps of...

So far as the Pelopæus is concerned, my part as an observer is concluded, a part of no great interest, I am the first to admit, if we limit its scope merely to the data which it...

The Pelopæus sets us a second problem. She frequents our homes, seeks the warmth of our fireplaces. A nest like hers, built of soft mud, which lets in the water, which would be...

The Pelopæus gives us a very poor idea of her intellect when she plasters the spot in the wall where the nest which I have removed used to stand, when she persists in cramming h...

If further proofs than those submitted elsewhere were needful, to demonstrate that the organ does not imply the function, that the implement does not determine the work, [57] th...

The industry of insects, especially that of the Bees and Wasps, abounds in tiny marvels. Newly manufactured with the cotton supplied by various fluff-covered plants, the nest of...

In September, with my little son Paul, who lends me his good sight and his artless attention, undisturbed as yet by anxious thoughts, I sally forth at a venture, questioning the...

Of the calamities that befall the Wasp when winter arrives, the worst remains to be told. Foreseeing the approach of failing power, the neuters, hitherto the tenderest of nurses...

Underneath the brown-paper manor-house, let us once more say, the ground is channelled into a sort of drain for the refuse of the nest. Here are shot the dead or weakly larvæ wh...